I like money back guaranties. As consumers when we read “no risk” or “money back guaranty” an ease comes over us as we contemplate a purchase. It creates a frictionless buying atmosphere.

According to Wikipedia, the money back guarantee was a major tool of early U.S. mail order sales pioneers in the United States such as Richard Sears and Powel Crosley Jr. to win the confidence of consumers.

As consumers we also know that a money back guaranty only has value if the retailer backs this promise. If the retailer sets up barriers (either intentionally or unintentionally) that make it difficult for consumers to get their money back, then the value of the guaranty is diminished. I am Ok with a time limit (e.g. 30-day Money Back Guaranty) as long as its communicated clearly to the consumer.

At DockMaster we recently posted a job for a .NET Software Developer. When reviewing the various job boards to post this opening we looked at CareerBuilder, Dice, Hotjobs and Monster. From what I could tell, none of these providers had a money back guaranty. Since I read www.joelonsoftware.com and was aware of their growing job board for programmers, we decided to give them a try. I have never done business with these guys, but the money back guaranty is what clinched the deal for me. Their policies are spelled out very clearly on their website.

Interestingly the post didn’t seem to work too well for us. Frustrated, I decided to “test” their money back guaranty. What follows is my e-mail exchange with a Fog Creek customer service rep.

>NAME: Cam Collins
>COMPANY: Exuma Technologies
>
>We posted the following job 19-days ago.
>
>http://jobs.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?5119.
>
>The resumes have been down right scary. Only two of the resumes were mildly qualified. Is our ad not compelling enough? Could it be the fact that top notch software developers don’t want to move to the technically challenged State of Florida. Joel’s post in Inc didn’t really help the good ole’ Sunshine State much :-). (Hey – Citrix and Gatoraid were invented here :).
>
>Maybe a refund isn’t really what we need. Instead, if we can’t seem to get good candidates down here maybe we should trade-in the ad fee for licenses of FogBugz. This way we can not only see what world-class software looks like, but we can improve internal efficiencies as well.
>
>Thanks for listening,
>
>Cam Collins
>CEO

Hi Cam:

Thanks for your email.  Well, I can’t say that you’re doing anything wrong that I can see; the ad has been viewed by just over a 1000 people.  And I just had a Gatorade this morning and it was delicious, so it can’t be Florida.

We could extend the job posting for you–that puts it at the top again and maybe you’ll get some traction.

As for trading in for FogBugz licenses, I can’t do that for bookkeeping reasons, but we can give you a refund on the job if the second effort doesn’t pan out.  Also, do you know about the Student and Startup Edition of FogBugz?  You can use it for free for up to 2 users.  Just go to Admin -> Your FogBugz On Demand Account and choose that option there once you’ve set up a trial.

Let me know if you would like to extend the job.

Regards,

Dan

The bottom line is that the ad hasn’t really worked for us. I probably will take them up on their offer to use FogBugz Start-up Edition for some of my personal stuff. Who knows we may roll this out at DockMaster (Exuma). Regardless, I remain a fan and that is precisely what they want!